Dr.... Who?

I have a weird last name. It's ethnic, and hard to pronounce. But not in a cute McSomething "Oh!-You-must-be-Irish!-Me-too!-And-my-four-kids-are-all-redheads!" or -stein or -sky way that denotes your particular heritage. My last name is Hungarian. Yea... no one ever guesses that. But they do look at me frequently and ask, "Dude.. where are you from?"

I'm as vanilla as can be, speak perfect and clear English, and my family has been here for 3-4 generations on any side you look. But my name is so hard to say. Honestly, there is debate in my family about how to say it. I say it differently than my parents, mostly because I try to enunciate so people understand what the frig I'm trying to say. I probably spell my last name 3-4 times per day on average. To further exacerbate this ridiculousness.. some of the letters are also hard to enunciate (at least for me). My lovely surname contains an S and an M and a D. So I usually get F? N? T? I just want to walk up to someone and say, "My name is Fizzle Smith." No repeating, no spelling, no explaining when my family immigrated to the U.S.

I suppose I should look at the bright side here, and admit I've gotten rather good at cranking out my NATO alphabet.. Just in case there is ever an emergency in which I need to spell every word over a walkie-talkie. But really, the hassle is frustrating.

I always thought there was an end in sight, because I was oh-so-certain that Prince Charming was going to pop out of the woodwork and marry my ass by age 20. I also realize that many people have names difficult to spell and pronounce. But I'm falling face-first into a profession in which I'm going to be introducing myself dozens of times per day.. and hundreds of patients will call me by my last name.

Alas, conundrum.

I want to legally change my last name. There, I said it. I know, I know, whip out the axes and grab your torches because this girl has renounced her family name and taken another without being wed! (At least that's how my mom reacted. She tried to tell me how "hurt" my father would be.) It is just as if I were getting married, except I'm not. Also, 1) the closest anyone in my family has been to Europe is Baltimore 2) neither my mother or father could locate Hungary on a map 3) I'm actually a smidge more German than Hungarian 4) We don't talk to my dad's side of the family anyway.

The downside I see is thus: It is going to cost a shitload of money. Seriusly-- Google "Legal Name Change". Go ahead... I'll wait. It's ridiculous: Court dates, car titles, insurance, voter registration, bank accounts, credit cards, student loans, passport, car registration, email addresses, postal service, hospital IDs... So. Much. Work.

However, I'm looking at it as it's going to be far cheaper to do it now, pre-medical licensure. Otherwise, we can probably tack on a few hundred dollars more.

I have vowed to make this decision on my own, weighing the pros and cons and thinking it through. I will not let my parents pressure me one way or the other, though I will likely account for their opinion in the cons.

I dunno. Thoughts?

Image credit.